Daryl Mellard, PhD, Research Professor and Director of the Division of Adult Studies at KU-Center for Research on Learning, has a strong track record of leading successful research, technical assistance, and professional development projects associated with adolescents and adults, adult learning disabilities, adult learning assessments, accommodations and interventions in adult basic and secondary education, career and technical education, and community college settings.  In addition to adults and adolescents in the research studies, the professional development and technical assistance activities included varied audiences: instructors, counselors, para-professionals, caseworkers, volunteer tutors, professional development staffs, and administrators. Under the DOL Job Corps professional development contract in 2011-2013, he served as the project director. In a related project, he was the Principal Investigator for a 4-year IES-funded study of Job Corps adult literacy interventions and before that a 5-year, NICHD-funded study of adult literacy.

Mellard was recognized as the 2011 University of Kansas Researcher Achievement Award for his body of work, and served as an invited committee member for The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, National Research Council Committee on Learning Sciences, Foundations and Applications to Adolescent and Adult Literacy.